# A very special NOTD: Pray for Japan!



## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

​ I wanted to do something special as a tribute for the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, so I did this manicure  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />​ I hope you guys like it! &lt;3​  ​ ​  ​ Products used:
OPI Chip Skip
OPI Nail Envy
OPI Alpine Snow
China Glaze Frosty
OPI Vodka &amp; Caviar
Cina Nail Art - White Hearts
LA Colors Art Deco in Black
CND Speedey


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## moriesnailart (Mar 22, 2011)

Love it!! What do the symbols mean?


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

I guess noone watches the video &gt;_&gt;

The kanji means "Hope"


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## moriesnailart (Mar 22, 2011)

Sorry, I would watch the video but I'm at work and it's blocked by websense. 








> Originally Posted by *AmourAnnette* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> I guess noone watches the video &gt;_&gt;
> 
> The kanji means "Hope"


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

> Originally Posted by *moriesnailart* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> 
> Sorry, I would watch the video but I'm at work and it's blocked by websense.


hehe, that's alright  /emoticons/smil[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I wasnt trying to sound mean btw!


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## jeanarick (Mar 22, 2011)

Beautifully done Annette!! I really admire you girls that can draw so precisely on your nails.


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## Geek2 (Mar 22, 2011)

So beautiful! I featured on the front page. I just bought a shirt on Ruelala because 100% of the proceeds go to help the Red Cross over in Japan.


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## kikikinzz (Mar 22, 2011)

This is a very nice tribute!!!!! Well done.


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## lisam9294 (Mar 22, 2011)

Soo beautiful!!! What an awesome job.


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

Thank you everyone!

And Reija, that's awesome, I'll have to check it out  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## zadidoll (Mar 22, 2011)

That's pretty but that doesn't look like kibou (which means Hope in Nihongo for non-Japanese speakers). Kobou is å¸Œæœ›

Edited: Hate American fonts... but the difference is the 4th stroke (the kanji on the ring finger). You made the 4th stoke too long and didn't connect the "dots" (6th and 7th stokes) to the 5th stroke. Sorry, my Japanese teacher (she's from Sendai) drilled it into us that if you don't do the strokes correctly and go over or don't connect you can get a totally different meaning. We learned the kanji for kibou and the 4th stroke doesn't extend up anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I love it though.
 



> Originally Posted by *AmourAnnette* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> 
> 
> ​


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

Like I said, I've never done kanji before, and I apologized in the video if it's not spot on. I'm not going for perfection, for that I would take a class in Japanese writing. Also, I looked at a lot of pictures of kibou and they all looked a little bit different, so I just picked one. Also, I have no idea where the strokes you are talking about are. And I can't see the characters you showed (they're showing up as two blank boxes), maybe if you found me a picture  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Anyways, I can't change it now, and I tried. I showed it to a few Japanese friends, and they said it looks like kibou. Maybe mine just looks more like calligraphy than "printed".


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## Annelle (Mar 22, 2011)

the only difference I saw was the upper right corner of the 2nd symbol should look like this:



but your thing is kind of sideways with two dots instead of right side up with two lines. I'm not really a japanese reader either, but that symbol itself is a kanji I've learned (by itself, it means "month") but kanji commonly uses multiple characters and combines them to make new words.  But if you are mimicking a language you don't know at all, it's hard to tell what to look for in terms of actual letter strokes versus personal handwriting flair. (especially if you're looking at brush strokes vs handwritten -- which look very different from each other)

(Imagine a non-english reader seeing this:



and trying to write "quill skill" based off what they see...they'd probably put a lot of marks that aren't normally there...their Q would probably look squared off on top and the tail would be way too long, and all of the "L" letters look like slightly different letters if you don't have the ability to recognize that they're all the same letter) --

Actually, I did some searching. That's EXACTLY what happened here.  The tall stroke up top that I thought was out of place is supposed to be the "downstroke" of the brush.  (When you write the american "n" there's a downstroke, then it comes back up and makes the rest of the n.  With a brush, the little top part of that downstroke is much more pronounced than it is in text or with a pencil.)  The dots are also because it's not always easy to make small precise lines with a big thick brush so a small short line lets you get the idea that it's supposed to be a line but you don't want to splotch everywhere.

This looks like your nails:  



Here's more images of the word for "hope":











(These are curvier, like someone going faster with the brush and less precise...you can kind of see it morph, but long time readers can still tell it's supposed to be the same thing...me personally if i hadn't looked it up, i wouldn't have been able to tell they were the same lol):

Hand written is on the bottom left which would be I guess the "original"?:





Good job on your nails though  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />  Very cool idea.


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

The first picture on the website was actually my reference photo  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## Annelle (Mar 22, 2011)

I linked the pictures in through mut instead.  Yeah, you've copied the calligraphy, and I don't think you realized that what should be the left side of that section was more ... flair on the original brush artist's behalf and not really part of the official letter.  Other than that, you look spot on to a non-japanese reader haha!  It is really hard to try to copy another language if you're not familiar with it.  (honestly the whole calligraphy of english is a really good example.




&lt;--our letters don't normally look like that


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 22, 2011)

My biggest thing is that I don't want to offend someone that might see it and think "Psh, she calls this a tribute video but she couldn't even do the characters correctly" &gt;_&gt;


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## kayleigh83 (Mar 23, 2011)

This is absolutely beautiful!!!


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## Liren (Mar 23, 2011)

Really creative. It's what the thoughts count.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## llehsal (Mar 23, 2011)

I love this.  I love the fact that you actually took the time to do this.  Whethere you go it perfect or not is beside the point.  It's beautiful.


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## DreamWarrior (Mar 23, 2011)

> Originally Posted by *moriesnailart* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> Sorry, I would watch the video but I'm at work and it's blocked by websense.



I too cant see videos at work! :-( 

Very well done tho!! I like!


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## katana (Mar 23, 2011)

I think you did a fabulous job on your nails  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## Dalylah (Mar 23, 2011)

Whether it is done perfect or not, it is beautiful and a lovely tribute!


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## zadidoll (Mar 23, 2011)

> Originally Posted by *AmourAnnette* /img/forum/go_quote.gif
> 
> Like I said, I've never done kanji before, and I apologized in the video if it's not spot on. I'm not going for perfection, for that I would take a class in Japanese writing. Also, I looked at a lot of pictures of kibou and they all looked a little bit different, so I just picked one. Also, I have no idea where the strokes you are talking about are. And I can't see the characters you showed (they're showing up as two blank boxes), maybe if you found me a picture  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
> 
> Anyways, I can't change it now, and I tried. I showed it to a few Japanese friends, and they said it looks like kibou. Maybe mine just looks more like calligraphy than "printed".


 Spot on or not it was pretty. I did like it. Just don't show my Japanese instructor. LOL

As for stokes, each kanji has a set number of strokes and they actually go in a certain order. If you don't write the kanji in the correct order it's wrong. LOL THAT you can blame on the Chinese since the Japanese learned kanji from them. LOL Sensei was a drill instructor in another life! LOL She could tell if the student wrote the kanji in the correct order and if it wasn't would mark the student down. Let me show you the order. This is from one of my books we used in class.



​ I love speaking Japanese but my goodness I do not miss writing kanji. There is only one kanji with 23 stokes and that's the kanji for kan which is using the word nenkan (yearbook). It's no wonder why the Japanese like typing now a days! Imagine having to learn 2,000 - 3,000 kanji (that's common) and each has it's own amount of strokes (in the proper order) then writing sentences with those kanji! In Japanese there are actually between 50,000 to 100,000 kanji but not all kanji is used anymore or is uncommon. To pass each level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test the student must master the kanji in the correct brush stroke as well as meet all the rest of the requirements.

It's still pretty and don't let me previous comment detract from how pretty and sweet it was for you do to that. I loved it even though the Japanese student in me, remembering my sensei, cringed. Like I said, she must have been a drill sergeant in another life! LOL


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 23, 2011)

I really like how strict the Japanese are in everything they do, it's a wonderful change from the freedom to do things how you want here in California. We need more strictness here!


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## masayo (Mar 23, 2011)

Annette, thanks for doing this... this made me teary eyed.






You did a wonderful job... I love the color and I love the choice of the word, Kibou. I wish I can show this to my Japanese friends that have been physically and psychologically exhausted from aftershocks (a fairly big one hit Tokyo area again this morning) and blackouts.

As for the Kanji, you did a great job!!! I don't even think I can draw it as good as yours with that tiny brush!


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## Geek (Mar 23, 2011)

This is one of the most amazing nail jobs I have ever seen.  Wow!  I'm glad these are featured


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## Diava (Mar 24, 2011)

What a lovely thoughtful manicure!!!!  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I totally think its the thought that counts too!!! And the manicure is stunning, you did a very good job with the Kanji IMO, especially if your not familiar with it, you cant be expected to get it 100% accurate, really really love it!

Diava

X


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## bluskjapanese (Mar 27, 2011)

You are a wonderful person for making this video in support for Japan ^-^ thank you


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## tiarra (Mar 27, 2011)

Beautiful!


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## Fiendgirl138 (Mar 29, 2011)

That is the prettiest manicure! Wow, what a neat tribute  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## AmourAnnette (Mar 29, 2011)

Thank you, everyone  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


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## Laced Ivory (Mar 31, 2011)

This is pretty! =)

xoxo,

Roxanne


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